To be fair, threatening to imprison our fellow punters for seeking to return to our fine shores after fleeing a global health emergency is not really salami slicing. It is more the equivalent of taking a meat axe to our rights and notions of citizenship, but more on this later.

Salami slicing refers to a series of many small actions that slowly whittle away freedoms and other rights. It is a commonly used metaphor in the field of human rights. It is also what has been happening globally and here in Australia. Since the onset of the pandemic, we have seen our rights sliced away in many ways. The slices were small and seemed so reasonable: we nodded in consent with few grumbles. Then the meat axe struck - citizens were not only being provided with little support to return home during a global health crisis, but were being threatened with being locked up if they did!

We are now more than a year into a truly global humanitarian crisis that is still only in its infancy. Globally, the situation is getting worse, not better, despite the improving situation in a small but growing number of well-heeled countries. These bright spots on a globe of misery are in good shape because of their effective roll out and take up of vaccines. It may have been ok a year ago to accept the notion that we could not bring home citizens stranded overseas, except in dribs and drabs, because of the risks involved. And it may have been ok a year ago to say that we cannot let citizens leave because of the risks posed when they sought to return home. But can we truly sustain this position?

For the nearly half (49%) of Australians born overseas (first generation) or with at least one parent born overseas (second generation), the promise of open borders is not about beach towels on exotic sandy beaches. It is not just about the freedom to attend funerals and visit the sick beds of those that matter. It is much more than that. It is about the freedom to fulfil family obligations that are as complex and varied as we are multicultural.

And what about our fellow citizens and permanent residents overseas that have had the bad fortune to be infected by Covid-19? We continue to abandon those that are seriously ill with Covid-19, even when they are in countries with health systems collapsing under the weight of the virus. On the weekend the first rescue flight out of India arrived half empty because so many of those hoping to travel were refused because they reportedly tested positive. In other words, we may bring home those at risk of Covid-19 such as those in the worst affected hotspots in India, but we will not bring home those who are infected and consequently in greater need. Not only is this unethical. It is illogical.

You may be muttering to yourself that this is ‘too difficult and too risky’. Possibly, but why? The problem is that it is not seen as a priority and there has been no serious thinking about how to get it done. How flat does the proverbial curve have to be to allow such cases to be managed in hotel quarantine or god forbid, in our hospitals that now have capacity to manage a large number of cases?

We have had more than a year to figure out how to do this safely and still there is no progress.

It would appear that Australia’s total intellectual output and problem-solving prowess amounts to no more than the ability to lock the doors!